On November 23, 2016, a fire was reported in Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The wildfire began burning in a remote location of the park called the Chimney Tops. That area has steep terrain with vertical cliffs and narrow rocky ridges, making access to the wildfire area difficult for firefighters to reach, so quite a bit burned before it could be extinguished. I’d visited the Smoky Mountains numerous times before and was amazed to see the damage this fire did. While most of the park was unaffected by the fire, the parts that were appeared to be a mass of blackened landscape and ash. That part of the countryside lay in ruin. 

Though it isn’t pleasant to consider, I think most of us know that everything falls apart. Cars break down. Paint chips off. Flowers wil…